


Waves of Change

by Smin



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic), Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: (I like to pull characters and things from different Sonic lore so I hope you like that lol), Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid Fusion, Chaos Emeralds, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, Multi, Phantom Ruby, References to Sonic the Hedgehog, Slow Burn, Species Dysphoria
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 07:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29996157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smin/pseuds/Smin
Summary: In all fifteen years of his life, Sonic has felt cramped and constrained living in the underwater mermobian city of Meropis. His caretaker's strict, vaguely-justified rules against interacting with the surface clash with his penchant for exploration and thirst for adventure, forcing him to sneak around when sneaky just isn't his style. But everything he knows will soon become flipped on its head when Sonic rescues a land-dwelling hedgehog from drowning.[READ THE NOTE AT THE END OF CHAPTER 1]
Relationships: Shadow the Hedgehog/Sonic the Hedgehog
Comments: 3
Kudos: 22





	Waves of Change

It happened again.

As Shadow’s bearings came together, the first thing that occurred to him was that he was back in bed, bedding a tangled mess but otherwise a safe haven compared to where he believed himself to be mere moments ago. The second thing he noticed was his arm, stretched out, palm up, reaching for someone who was no longer there. Third was the sunrise, warm in color and touch against the ocean breeze.

If anything surprised him at this point, it was that this reoccurring nightmare had occurred far closer to dawn than usual.

It became second nature to him at this point; both the dream itself, and his coping method. Without missing a beat, he was sitting up and pushing the blankets aside, on his feet, lacing his boots, and leaving his room with little haste. Down the hall, descending the staircase, and out the door. He stood there only for a moment, taking in the sky’s full warmth, unshielded by the cold castle walls, and the wafting tang of the salty sea air. He took a step onto the sand, tentative as it sunk ever so slightly beneath his boot. Taking a deep breath in and out, he set his other foot on the sand, and began making his way down to the shore.

 _I cannot let it win,_ Shadow thought to himself. _I cannot let it make me feel this way._

Before long, he was standing at the edge, the ocean waves diminishing in size and falling away before they could even graze his feet. Now higher in the sky from when he awoke, the sun’s reflection sparkled on the clear water. He folded his arms, a sensation that most read as intimidating but offered him a subconscious feeling of comfort, as he gazed out at the sea.

How could something he cherished so dearly bring him such grief?

“You’re up early,” a voice spoke behind him. “Feeling eager to take on the day today?”

Shadow looked behind him, and was greeted by the playful body language of his loyal adviser. Shadow turned away from her, his attention back on the sparkling sea. “I had that dream again, Rouge.”

The bat’s face fell, and her tone became gentle. “Yeah?”

Shadow nodded. “The storm came, as bad as always. He still called out to me, she still screamed, and I still couldn’t reach them. The sea still took them, and the sand still swallowed me whole to keep me from doing anything. It…it never changes, but…” His voice trailed off the second a tremble escaped.

Rouge wrapped her arms around her charge and held him close. Very few, in the castle or the village, would dare to approach him so informally, nor would he allow very many people so close. She hated seeing him torture himself like this. She wished she could pull every ounce of misery out of her dearest friend’s heart and chuck it into the atmosphere, never to burden him again.

“It wasn’t your fault, hon. It was a freak accident. You can’t control the weather.”

Shadow remained silent.

Rouge pulled away, and moved to stand beside Shadow. “I remember you used to love coming out here when we were kids. You said you were looking for mermobians. You wanted to meet one and swim with them, and ask them what their world was like. Maria and Gerald thought you were so cute.”

“How could I forget?” Rouge could make out Shadow wiping at his eyes. “Father always disapproved of such childish notions.”

“Ah yes, how dare a _five-year-old_ indulge in anything _childish_ ,” Rouge sneered. “My point is, you used to look at the sea so fondly. But now…all it does is make you sad. Just like he wanted.”

Shadow’s arms unfolded.

“To be completely honest,” Rouge continued, “I’m glad the king is gone. All he ever did was try to make you a cruel, friendless sourpuss like him. And you and I both know Maria and Gerald would agree.”

“But I _am_ his son, and I _am_ expected to assume the throne.”

“Yeah, but there’s a difference between genetics and conforming to someone else’s unreasonable expectation of how royalty acts, Shadow.”

A beat of silence hung in the air between them before Shadow chose to break it.

“Rouge...you don’t actually suppose there’s anyone down there, do you?”

Rouge cocked an eyebrow. “That depends, are you talking about mermobians, or have you been listening to rumors about Mr. Black Sheep again?”

Shadow kept silent again.

Rouge sighed. “Either way, I can’t say for certain. But I _do_ know today’s another day, and that sunrise is telling me we should head back for breakfast.” She turned around to leave, but stopped and curved her head back to Shadow. “If you feel up for it, we could take a boat out on the water for your birthday. You may not find anyone down there, but at least the view will be nice, right?”

Shadow kept his back to her, but gave a small nod.

Rouge smiled. “Sounds good. C’mon, sugar.”

-

Little did most on the surface know that as the late morning sun sparkled in the sky and warmed the water, life was indeed stirring in the mysterious fathoms below. Shielded from the world above, hidden to the naked eye, was the colorful and bustling underwater city of Meropis, home to a race long thought mythical by the world above it: the mermobians. As colorful as their surface-dwelling counterparts, the mermobians differed in that they took almost exclusively after fish. Like any land community, Meropis was home to only a fraction of mermobian life, among its inhabitants a powerful guardian whose name struck fear into the hearts of outsiders who dared to approach her home.

Presently, she swam before the rulers of Meropis: the short-tempered King Puff, the stern Queen Angelica, and their bored teenage daughter Princess Undina.

“Longclaw!” huffed the pufferfish king, “It’s about time you got here!”

“My utmost apologies, your highness,” the flying fish answered unwaveringly, bowing before her superiors. “I came as quickly as I could. How may I be of service?”

“It’s happening _again_!” the king whined. “Those horrid holes!”

Longclaw’s eyes widened. “In the shield?”

“No, in the seafloor,” he cried sarcastically, “YES, in the shield! It’s just awful! It’s despicable! It’s—it’s—!”

His anglerfish wife turned to him with concern. “Puff, darling, mind your—”

Before she could finish, the king had suddenly—and almost comically—inflated into a round ball of spikes.

“…temper.”

“Ugh, Dad,” the princess moaned from her throne, “You’re so embarrassing.”

Queen Angelica sighed and pinched her brow. “Why don’t you let me explain while you take your time to calm down.” At her husband’s attempt at a nod, the queen turned her gaze to Longclaw, brows furrowed and eyes burrowing into the guardian’s soul. “Longclaw, if my memory serves me correctly, it was you who was the most vocal about installing the magical shield that has protected our city for the past fifteen years, was it not?”

Longclaw’s face tensed. “Yes, your majesty.”

“Then I don’t think I need to remind you of all people how _important_ it is to maintain.”

Longclaw’s eyes hardened, and her gaze retreated to the floor. “No, you don’t.”

“Earlier today, as she was conducting the daily rites, the priestess of the Eusebes Shrine reported finding yet another hole in the shield, the fifth one in the past month. At first, my husband and I assumed she was simply slacking in her duties and lying about it; after all, she’s not nearly as competent as our daughter—”

The princess groaned. “Mom, would you please let it go already! Coral’s a way better priestess than me, I didn’t even wanna—!”

“That’s quite enough, Undina,” the queen spat. “As I was saying. We believed her to be lying, but your fellow guards Razor and Echo were able to corroborate her story. Something they brought to our attention about these holes is that they all appear to be the same size, roughly large enough for a mermobian to pass though. They’re also marked by the same pink aura, a mark of a practitioner of magic. We’ve already questioned other guards, but now I will ask you: do you happen to know anything about what might be causing these holes in the shield?”

Longclaw’s head snapped up, eyes wide and brows sharp. “Sonic…!”

“That was Sonic??” Undina squealed, eyes aglow with twinkling stars. “Oh my gosh, he’s so hardcore~!”

Queen Angelica cleared her throat, signaling her daughter to contain herself. The princess draped herself across her throne, lost in thought but otherwise no longer intruding on the conversation.

“Er, what I mean is,” Longclaw tried to explain, “Sonic himself doesn’t know magic, but his friend—”

“I don’t need to know the details right now,” the queen spoke harshly. “We can discuss that later. But if your son is risking our peoples’ lives by damaging our only means of protection from the surface that you so urgently advocated for, I expect you to reprimand him and resolve the issue before it gets out of hand. If this continues any further, and it _is_ him doing it…then I fear I may need to relieve our greatest protector of her position. Understood?”

Longclaw gulped and bowed once more. “Y-yes, your highness.”

The queen waved her hand. “You are dismissed.”

Having finally deflated, King Puff shook his fist in the air. “Report back to us about this matter as soon as you can!”

Longclaw nodded. “Yes, your majesty.”

As she turned to swim out of the throne room, Longclaw grumbled to herself. “Oh, Sonic…why can’t you just stay put and out of trouble?”

-

Somewhere outside Meropis, a young blue mermobian marlin was swimming as fast as his tail could push him through the water, already achieving speeds no other had come even close to breaking.

 _Gotta keep going,_ he thought to himself. _Can’t let him catch me!_

His speed only increased, the water around him growing into a blur of pressurized bubbles. He himself had become a blur of blue to the viewing world, his body pushed far beyond the limits of any other of his kind.

_Come on, just a little further!_

“—and, time!” a young voice called, not too far from behind him.

As he stopped to catch his breath, he was shortly approached by three other mermobian figures. The nearest to him, a red angelshark, was gasping even heavier, weakly swimming toward him, floating almost limply through the water in his direction. Close behind him were a younger orange foxfish, his four tailfins swishing behind him eagerly, and a pink marlin clutching the sash at her side.

“Seventy miles per hour in three minutes!” the young foxfish cheered. “That’s another record, Sonic!”

Still catching his breath, Sonic snickered. “Not bad, but could be better. Looks like I’m still the fastest thing in the sea, though. Better luck next time, Knuckles.”

The red angelshark growled weakly. “If…” he gasped, “If we…used our fists…I would’ve…won…!”

As his friend continued to grumble to himself, the pink marlin pulled Sonic into a death grip of a hug. “I just KNEW you could do it, Sonic! You’re the best there is!”

“A-Amy!” Sonic choked out.

Realizing her own strength, Amy released her friend. “Ah, sorry! Personal space, I know. It’s just, I get so excited seeing you at your best!” She then looked down nervously. “But even so, I’m not sure how I feel about using my magic to slip us through the shield so you can race Knuckles. Can’t you do that in Meropis, where the most we’ll get in trouble for is disturbing the peace?”

“Yeah,” said Sonic, “But we didn’t come all the way out here _just_ so I could outswim ol’ Knucklehead. A couple trips ago, Tails found _that_.”

Sonic’s friends turned to face the direction his finger pointed in. Sitting before them, still and motionless at the bottom of the ocean, was a damaged, sunken red and white ship, adorned with yellow accents and strange motors the likes of which the quartet had not seen before.

“We’ve mostly just been searching for things I wanted to find,” said Sonic, “So I promised Tails this time we’d explore something he wanted to check out.” He gestured with his thumb at the ship. “That _is_ it, right?”

“Yup,” said Tails. “The fabled sunken ship of the Legendary Wind Master.”

“Wow,” Amy marveled, “It looks so different from the other boats.”

“If my theories are correct,” said Tails, “Then this is no ordinary ship. This one in particular was built to sail the skies themselves, enabling land-dwellers to reach heights they never could before, and possibly even worlds beyond the sky!”

Sonic gave a thoroughly-impressed whistle. Knuckles rolled his eyes.

Tails sighed in wonder. “Could you imagine being able to swim through the sky like water? Getting to see those glowing lights and puffy white things up close?”

“That _would_ be pretty cool,” said Sonic, “But I’d wanna see what’s on land first. That’s where all the fun stuff is! No offense, Tails.”

Knuckles scoffed. “No thanks. I prefer the ocean, where it’s safe and predictable and land-dwellers can’t touch us.”

Sonic casually draped his arm over Knuckles’s shoulder. “Remind me why we’re friends again?” he snarked with a grin.

“Because you’d be chum if I wasn’t there to save your shiny blue tail on a regular basis?” Knuckles snarked back with his own grin.

“Hm. Valid point.” Sonic removed his arm and zipped towards the gaping hole near the top of the ship. “Then if you’re done bragging, you and Amy can be on guard duty while Tails and I have a look inside.”

“Wh—I never agreed to—!”

“You think we’ll find anything new, Sonic?” Tails asked, completely ignoring Knuckles as he followed closely behind his older brother.

“No doubt about it,” Sonic replied. “And who knows? If it’s an air ship like you said, then maybe there’s a whole race of sky-dwellers with their own cool stuff!”

Tails gasped with bubbling excitement. “Don’t get my hopes up like that!!”

As the duo ventured further into the wreck, Knuckles groaned and held his head in his hand. “Why do I let him do this to me?”

“I figure it’s because deep down, you actually do care about Sonic and want to be a supportive friend,” said Amy.

“But if I were really a good friend, wouldn’t he listen to me when I say something’s a bad idea? I mean, poking holes in the city’s shield just to look for old land-dweller junk? We wouldn’t just get in trouble if they caught us; we could be putting everyone’s lives at risk.”

Amy sighed. “I know. But you know how Sonic is: he’s gotta follow his own way. Besides, I’d rather be stuck doing guard duty for him than get left behind, like he used to do to me.”

Frustrated and back at square one, Knuckles sighed and crossed his arms. “I just wish his way was a little less thoughtless about consequences.”

-

“Find anything, Tails?” Sonic called from the lower deck of the ship.

“Did I!” Tails exclaimed from the upper deck. “So many gadgets and gizmos…so much to learn about…I don’t know if I can carry it all back in one trip!!”

“Grab what you can manage and just let Knuckles carry the heavier stuff,” said Sonic, “He won’t mind too much. He can complain all he wants, but if you ask me, he secretly loves being dragged away from all those boring shrine dut—whoa!!”

Still clutching his haul of land-dweller objects, Sonic stopped to gaze at the sight before him. He was not completely sure what to make of it; it resembled a blue and yellow fish—bass, he figured—but made of the smoothest stone he had ever seen, and put together in a way that made it look more…well, “constructed” was the only word he could think of to describe it, than a natural-looking fish. It lay unmoving on the floor of the ship, and Sonic was unsure if it was some sort of toy or a badly-mangled carcass. So, he decided to use the rusted wrench he found to poke it.

Not one of his brighter ideas.

Upon being touched and moved by the wrench, the fish’s “eyes” opened with a bright red glow. It rose from its spot, seemed to “shake” itself awake, and opened its mouth at Sonic, revealing rows of unnaturally-sharp teeth.

“Uh, Tails?” Sonic called out. “We’re not alone in this ship…!”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so. Ordinarily these days, I would want to try to finish a multichapter story _before_ posting it because I've bailed on these things before due to hyperfixation fatigue, but I'm so eager to show this off (and fixating so hard on Sonic despite there being kind of a major content drought right now lol) that I kinda jumped the gun and decided to post what I have so far. I've written for multiple later chapters of this thing, but I'm still working on putting the overall story together. Which is kinda difficult since I also have a lot of homework to catch up on.
> 
> This whole idea was kickstarted by a drawing that official IDW Sonic artist and head writer Evan Stanley drew a few years ago of Sonic as a mermobian marlin (the link to which is here: https://spiritsonic.tumblr.com/post/124213744579/i-drew-sonic-as-a-marlin-mer-mobian-because), which led me to imagine "lol what if Sonadow but it's The Little Mermaid" and well...here we are. I may be cringe but at least I'm free.
> 
> Consider this chapter a beta test, and let me know what you think of the story so far.


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